Balance within Harmony

The Cutie Mark Crusaders were having their Saturday morning weekly planning session, when Sweetie Belle brought the floors attention to her

"Scootaloo, Apple Bloom - I have news! A few months ago I wrote to Princess Celestia..."

"Princess Celestia?" the two friends responded in union

"...and after this Discord thing, I think it's time to write again!"

And with a flourish of the hoof as extravagant as her older sister would make, Sweetie laid out the letters for her friends to read.

Dear Princess Celestia

My name is Sweetie Belle, and I am the sister of Rarity. I asked Twilight to send you this message and I hope it is not too much of an inconvenience. I apologise if it is and will take full responsibility as I have written this myself. If you don't respond I will never write to you again, but I have a question that I want to ask you.

I have been thinking a lot over what happened to my sisters friends when they used the Elements of Harmony, and I know everypony have been looking into it. Whilst I don't have the magic powers of others, I had a thought that nopony seems to be able to answer.

I know where foals come from (Midwife Fluttershy told all the fillies/colts at School about it), but where do Alicorns comes from? Given that you and Princess Luna, the only two Alicorns in existence, were the previous bearers I can only think that perhaps it is related.

Your faithful subject, Sweetie Belle.

Dear Sweetie Belle

Thank you for your letter. Whilst I understand your apprehension in contacting me, I am always open to helping teach ponies and helping them grow. Whilst not many of them have a direct line to a Princess, as your sister helped return my sister to me, I feel that this would be an appropriate reward for her.

Your motives for contacting me seem pure, but I must warn you not to tell many ponies that you are in contact with a Princess. There are many ponies who would want to take that opportunity for personal gain, so be careful young filly.

Back to the matter at hoof: At this time I cannot reveal exactly where Alicorns come from. It is part of larger story, which may or not be related to changes to the bearers of the elements. At some point in the future there will be a threat to Equestria that will be linked to the Elements in some way. Once this has been resolved, I imagine you may have a further question which I look forward to hearing from you, as this will start the next part of the story.

With warmest regards,

Princess Celestia

"So" Sweetie started after her friends had finished reading "I'm thinking this whole Chaos thing with Discord has to be event she refers to"

"But, what's the question?" Scootaloo asked

"Well, I plan to ask where Discord came from! Given that he seemed to be as powerful as an Alicorn in that only the elements could beat him, that has to be it!"

"Exactly!" Applebloom excitedly bounced "That can't be a co-incidence"

And with that the two fillies watched as Sweetie slowly wrote an elegantly scribed letter to the Princess asking, although Scootaloo couldn't wait for the afternoons planned quest - Cutie Mark Crusaders White Water Rafters

***

Meanwhile, the elder Belle and her fiancée were also exchanging letters with Canterlot:

Dear Princess Celestia and Princess Luna

You sent me to Ponyville to find out about the Magic of Friendship. In that time I have learnt a lot both about life in general outside of libraries. But especially learnt so much regarding friendship and the importance of family.

But one friendship became much stronger then any of the others. Rarity, the element of Generosity, and I started seeing more then friendship in each other. We kept our budding relationship hidden from the others, as we wanted to take things slowly and didn't want to endanger the existing and new Friendships we were all developing here in Ponyville.

Obviously you know what happened with Discord from our report. However, we did keep some facts out of the official reports, and the stories passed to the media. Discords power of persuasion did manage to eventually take effect on all of us, I'm afraid to say even me, but something snapped me out of it. And that something was for me to realise how much I loved Rarity.

And the action to snap Rarity and the others out of Discords evil power was to propose to Rarity.

And I said yes!

Although the engagement was much earlier then either of us would ever have planned, we are not foalish enough to rush further. I fully plan to commit myself as I always have to my studies and your mentorship, whilst I will continue to build up my fashion business. But we do hope to plan to grow our relationship further over time, with your blessing of course.

We both wish to thank you for sending me to Ponyville, and allowing me to stay, as without that we would never have found each other, and I would still be searching for that special somepony

Your Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle

and his loving fiancée and loyal subject, Rarity

P.S. I thank you for managing to distract Discord for long enough for the plan to take effect. On the basis on your anger when you arrived in Ponyville, I only presume he had done something terrible. I am sorry for any harm that was caused by me sending him back to you, but it was necessary. I hope this doesn't impact my annual report-card negatively.

Dear Twilight Sparkle and Rarity Belle

Both Luna and I are delighted to hear of your engagement, and it comes to no surprise to us that your combined love was greater than the power of chaos. It brings us joy whenever any of the ponies of Equestria find happiness, but having watched you Twilight grow from a young foal who didn't have time for friends into the happy couple you have now become make us proud beyond belief.

And Rarity, we have heard you're name mentioned at a number of Canterlot events. For a pony as young as you, to have made such an impact in Canterlot society, must have taken a lot of work and persistence.

Of course we will have to honour your latest saving of our kingdom, and your engagement, next time all our schedules allow us to meet in Canterlot. Or if we can find the appropriate time we would love to come and celebrate in Ponyville. I guess either way as it doesn't really need much planning as Pinkie seems to carry that confetti canon with her everywhere anyway!

However, as your rulers and your mentors, we do have one strict condition on your new relationship and this engagement. When you do finally decide to perform the marriage celebration, I'm afraid we must insist that we are the ones to marry you in the Royal Hall of Canterlot Castle, on a day of national celebration.

After-all, we cannot think of any other ponies who have done more for this land than the bearers.

Your happy mentors (and future mentors in law), Celestia and Luna

Dear Mother and Father

I would have preferred to have given you this news in person, but given my study schedule prevented another trip to Canterlot and with your soon planned trip to Manehattan, I wanted to give you some exciting news as soon as possible.

As you must already been aware, being in all the newspapers, my friends and I have saved Equestria again. We managed to defeat the cause of all the chaos, the god of chaos Discord, thanks to our friendship and the elements of harmony. However, there was a lot of information kept out of the newspapers and has been held back for privacy.

A part of Discords plan was to use his magic to try to turn us against each other, but he failed to take one thing into account. That two of the elements of harmony have fallen in love with each other, and this power of love was strong enough to counteract Discords control over them all. But to do so involved one of the couple proposing to the other.

I am happy to say that I was the one to do the proposing, and Rarity who I love deeply said yes! We know we are a little young to get engaged, and we have no plans to rush into the marriage. We have already discussed it with Princess Celestia and we won't do anything to disrupt my studies, or Rarity's budding career in fashion.

I can't wait for you to meet her, I know you will love her as much as I do! As soon as my studies and Rarity's business allow it, and as long as we don't have save the world again, we will come to Canterlot.

I hope you have a safe trip to Manhattan.

Your Loving Son, Twilight

"Well, that's half the parents told" Rarity cooed as Spike sent off the last letter

"Yes, but now I have to...meet you're parents" Twilight gulped "I mean, i never asked you're dad for permission or anything, what if he objects, what if they want me banished for failing to follow unicorn protocol..."

Rarity saw her finance starting to go into one of his usual rants/meltdowns, so just leaned in and gave him a nuzzle causing him to instantly calm down.

"Wow Rarity, you need to be at my beck and call every-time Twilight has a breakdown" Spike called out, causing both the unicorns to blush.

***

In Canterlot the two royal sisters were in deep discussion.

"Sister, things are moving a lot quicker then we originally thought" Luna cooed worriedly.

"Yes, I did not expect that your return and Discords awakening would have happened so close to each other. This, coupled with the recent developments with the bearers..."

"Indeed, I didn't expect that letter from Twilight for many years!"

"Well, we have four more bearers to worry about for now..."